Lie!

(Baonghean) -LWhen you grow up, you will understand what you should and shouldn't do, what you think is right and what you think is wrong. Finally, you will know what maternal love is like and understand that nothing can change or shake it...

Motherly love. Illustration photo

We had fun today, didn't we, baby girl?

We went to the zoo. Here are the monkeys eating bananas and food that the tourists threw at them. There are the peacocks with their colorful, shiny dresses, walking proudly and somewhat arrogantly. There is the elephant being fed by the zookeeper. The child said, “Isn’t it as big as your house, Mom?” and kept staring at its curved trunk, refusing to look away.

Then mom took me to buy books. I was about to start first grade, but I had already started to spell. Mom clearly remembers the feeling of being given a book when I was little. It was a fairy tale, about a couple who, for some reason, had to be separated, and when the husband returned, the wife had turned into a lotus flower. Mom was very sad when she read that story, and she will always remember the image of a lotus flower drawn on the last page of the book. Mom loves stories and books. And mom knows how happy you were today when you held them in your hands.

At the end of the day, we sat down at a coffee shop. When I saw the maid holding the baby in her arms, diligently feeding him milk spoon by spoon, I commented: “She looks like the baby’s mother, doesn’t she?” Then the woman got a phone call. On the other end of the line must be her young child, who seemed to be in the countryside with his grandmother. When I asked her what she was doing, the woman paused for a moment, her eyes filled with tears, and then she answered me: “I’m doing the laundry.” At that moment, I turned to my mother and asked, “Why did she lie? Why didn’t she say she was feeding the baby milk instead of doing the laundry?”

I couldn't answer you in detail at that moment, my little girl. In your mind, lying is not a good thing, it's not right, and clearly that mother was lying to her child. But my child, a 5-year-old child like you doesn't understand the twists and turns of life. That woman had to leave her young child at home to go to the city to make a living, and ironically, the job she had to do was to take care of another child. Believe me, she loves her child as much as I love you, and also wants to take her child to the park, the zoo, or buy books, like we did today. But she can't do that. And her lie was only to avoid hurting her child back home. A child with his immature mind will more easily accept that his mother is doing the laundry than that she is taking care of another child.

My dear daughter, as you grow up you will understand what is right and what is wrong, what is right and what is wrong. Finally you will know what a mother's love is and understand that nothing can change or shake it.

Today is a happy day, isn't it? I love you so much...

Quynh An